Apache Struts

Apache Struts is a free Framework to develop applications Web J2EE. It uses and extends the API Servlet Java in order to encourage the developers to adopt architecture Model-Sight-Controller. Apache Struts was created by Craig McClanahan and was given to the foundation Apache in May 2000. Today, Struts belongs to the project Jakarta.

This infrastructure allows the design and the implementation of Web applications of important size and to be managed by various groups of people. In other words, the designers, developers of software components can manage their own share of the project in an uncoupled way.

Struts allows the structuring of a Java application in the form of a whole of actions representing of the events started by the users of the application. These actions are described in a file of configuration of the type XML describing the possible routes between the various actions. In addition to that, Struts makes it possible to automate the management of certain aspects such as for example the validation of the data entered by the users via the interface of the application. More need to come to code the control of each abundant data by a user, it is enough to describe the checks to be carried out in a file XML dedicated to this task.

By using Struts, the developer simplifies its work on the level of the sights and the controllers of model MVC. But it would be unsuited to use this framework in projects of small size because it introduces a certain complexity. Struts shows all its power in applications of a certain scale.

It is a Free software distributed according to the terms of the License Apache.

Competitors

Although Struts is a mature and correctly documented application, it faces new lighter infrastructures MVC such as Spring, Apache Tapestry or JSF.

In December 2005, Struts joined its forces with another popular cadriciel J2EE, WebWork. Webwork is adopted like version 2.0 of Apache Struts. Webwork was derived from Struts it there has several years, and offers many improvements, while keeping same general architecture.

Among the others cadriciels MVC not based on Java, one can quote Django, Catalyst and Turbogears.

See too

External bonds

Official site of the project Struts
Course on Struts by the laboratory of technologies Sun

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